In age of Internet, McAllister and Solomon's marks 20 years

Saturday

Aug 24, 2013 at 4:30 PM

Co-owner Steve McAllister has seen and learned a lot from the books that come and go.

By Emily EvansEmily.Evans@StarNewsOnline.com

Steve McAllister believes the books he brings into his store to put on the shelves have two stories – the story written and intended by the author, and the actual life of the book itself.McAllister is co-owner of McAllister and Solomon's Used and Rare Bookstore, and this summer marks 20 years since he and Linda Solomon opened their doors on Wrightsville Avenue.McAllister, who spends 65 to 70 hours a week in the store and pores over thousands of books, said he has seen and learned a lot from the books that come and go.For example, McAllister recently acquired a book on American trees published in 1832.The information on the trees themselves might not be interesting except for a handful of people, McAllister admitted. But what caught his attention were crumpled leaves pressed among the pages. The leaves date back to as early as 1854, according to handwritten notes in the margins. Based on the notes, McAllister imagines the leaves to come from the trees used by the author of the book to build his kitchen table.The bookstore's walls are lined to the ceiling with wooden shelves and even more zigzag through the building, dividing open space into nooks and crannies. Stacks of books sit on and behind the front desk, obscuring the view of even more stacks of books behind them and then more piles even farther back. The front rooms have the most light with the sunlight pouring in through the windows and highlighting spines with names like Faulkner, Austen, Byron and Bronte, as well as other obscure names and titles.McAllister, a constant presence within a store of cycling books, walks the isles giving recommendations to customers or selecting titles from clients' libraries to buy and sell in his store. Usually, if the book is interesting to him, he will buy it for the store. McAllister estimated he looks at almost 500 books a day, sometimes even 1,000 on a busy day.

Solomon and McAllister were coworkers at the New Hanover County library more than 20 years ago when Solomon approached McAllister with the business model for the bookstore.“Even when I was an undergraduate I worked in the university bookstore and I have always loved books and always wanted to have a bookstore,” Solomon said.Solomon also had three young children at the time and wanted to be able to spend time with them. “The store was really opened to give (Linda) the opportunity to raise her kids,” McAllister said. “And that is one of the most successful things about the business, how it worked for her.” Solomon said the bookstore accomplished exactly what she wanted and gave her the opportunity to raise her children in a happy environment.“I did what I love when I was out of the house and then I brought that positive energy back to the kids,” Solomon said. “There wasn't a single day that I did not look forward to going to work.”With her goals in mind, Solomon said opening a store would have made no sense without a partner. That is where her partnership with McAllister began.McAllister admits he's not exciting. He is peculiar and confusing and has spent his life trying to stay pretty much invisible, he said.But McAllister said he has something many people go their whole life waiting for and sometimes never obtain – satisfaction.“I've always thought if I learn something every day, something new, that I've done extremely well in life,” he said. “I've felt like the store has enabled me to learn an awful lot every day of my life.”Solomon approached McAllister with her business idea because she said he shared the same passion for books, stories and people as she did. His expertise in local history and aviation complimented her love for young and adult literature.“We brought complimentary strengths to the business and filled in the gaps for each other,” Solomon said.Together, Solomon and McAllister tried to create a place that was for everybody. The partners did not want a place just for the fellow book dealer – they wanted people to come in that loved books as much as they did; they wanted curious students coming in to browse the shelves; and they wanted to assist their customers in building unique collections of their own.

After 20 years in business, McAllister sees someone new every day and learns something different with each closing.In the age of gigantic bookstores, Amazon and e-readers, McAllister and Solomon's is an oddity sitting quietly in a shopping center on Wrightsville Avenue.McAllister credits much of their success to Solomon's idea to use the Internet to their advantage before the Web put them out of business.“It's been a real positive thing for people who changed with the Internet. It was a real good experience,” McAllister said. “If you decided that you were not an Internet sort of guy or business, you were going to die. I still know people that cuss the day the Internet came.”Solomon and McAllister began using the Internet for their business in 1996. Back then, the pair paid $80 an hour to download and upload books, which was done by phone. Today, the Web provides half of the bookstore's business, allowing the couple to sell books to places around the world every day.The economic crisis in recent years also put the bookstore in jeopardy but it did not take as direct a hit as other places, locally and nationally. McAllister admitted they did lose customers because buying books was not a priority for them financially. However, many families were forced to downsize to smaller houses, and McAllister started seeing families bring in their collections and libraries that they didn't have room for anymore.Although the business is not back to where it was before 2008, the store survived the financial storm and Solomon and McAllister never had to compromise the original foundation they built their business on – making people happy.Besides the Internet, McAllister knows interaction with his customers is just as important to the business. He was born and raised in Wilmington, and as he puts it, “Has never been able to stay away for long.” McAllister tries to take in a little bit about each book that he takes in to put on the shelf so when a customer walks in asking questions, he knows the answers.And while he admits he's not the best business man, McAllister believes the majority of people he has come in contact with in the store have had a good experience with him.“You don't stay in business for 20 years if you disappoint people,” he said.